All Reports

On September 28, 2017, President Trump nominated Don R. Willett, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to fill the seat vacated by Emilio Garza, who took senior status in 2012. The seat was left open for five years because Senators Cornyn and Cruz would not agree to confirm any Obama nominee to fill the vacancy.

On September 7, 2017, President Trump nominated Matthew Kacsmaryk to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Kacsmaryk currently serves as Deputy General Counsel to the First Liberty Institute. During his time at the Institute, which is also the former employer of fellow anti-LGBTQ nominee Jeff Mateer, Kacsmaryk has consistently and fervently attacked women’s and LGBTQ rights.

On March 18, 2017, Judge Daniel Breen, a federal district court judge in the Western District of Tennessee, assumed senior status. A few months later, on July 13, 2017, President Trump nominated Mark Norris, current Majority Leader of the Tennessee State Senate, to fill the vacancy. Alliance for Justice strongly opposes this nominee.

On September 7, 2017, President Trump nominated Deputy White House Counsel, Gregory G. Katsas, to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. There is no doubt why the President nominated Katsas. There are countless seasoned Republican lawyers who would be qualified to sit on the D.C. Circuit, the nation’s “second highest court.” The reason for Katsas’s nomination, however, appears to be his role as a Trump loyalist and a White House insider, who by his own account could have had a hand in almost all legal actions and decisions undertaken by the Trump Administration.

On August 3, 2017, President Trump nominated Leonard Steven “Steve” Grasz, a former Chief Deputy Attorney General of Nebraska, to serve as a federal judge on the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Grasz is the President’s third nominee to that court, along with David Stras and Ralph Erickson. Grasz is nominated to fill the seat of former Chief Judge William J. Riley, who took senior status on June 30, 2017. Grasz’s record is deeply concerning, particularly his opposition to the rights of women and the LGBTQ community. Alliance for Justice strongly opposes Grasz’s nomination.

Liles Burke currently serves as an Associate Judge on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. He was nominated on July 19, 2017 by President Trump for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Alliance for Justice has prepared this brief fact sheet to highlight areas of Burke’s record in which we believe greater scrutiny by the Senate is warranted.

On June 19, 2017, President Trump nominated Stephanos Bibas to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He is nominated to fill the seat of Marjorie Rendell, who assumed senior status on July 1, 2015.

President Trump nominated Judge William (“Billy”) M. Ray, II on July 13, 2017, to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Alliance for Justice has prepared this brief fact sheet to highlight areas of Ray’s record in which we believe greater scrutiny by the Senate is warranted. This report does not attempt to analyze the entirety of his record.

Because Farr has built his career on disenfranchising voters of color and stripping workers’ protections, which raises serious questions whether he will be fair and unbiased as a judge, Alliance for Justice strongly opposes his nomination to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.President Trump nominated attorney Thomas Alvin Farr on July 13, 2017, to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

On June 7, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Hartwell Eid for the seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacated by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Eid’s nomination defies the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which creates guidelines for the administration of the federal courts, that the vacancy on the Tenth Circuit not be filled due to lack of caseload.